1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a blower system for a vehicular air-conditioning system etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a vehicular air-conditioning system is provided at the front of the front seats in the passenger compartment. It has an intake having a blower system for obtaining air from inside and outside of the compartment, a cooler for cooling the obtained air, and a heater for heating the cooling air.
The blower system provided at the intake is also disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2002-347423. For example, as shown in FIG. 10, it has a blower case 1 in which a centrifugal type blower fan F is housed and a motor M driving the blower fan F. When this motor 14 drives the blower Fan F, the air inside the compartment or the air outside the compartment is selectively taken into the blower case 1 from an intake port 3 (also called a “bellmouth”) and flows from a discharge port (not shown) of the blower case 1 toward the later cooler or heater.
In this blower system, the blower case 1 and the motor M are connected by a cooling air passage 4. Part of the air flowing through a spiral casing 1a is guided into the motor M as cooling air and cools the motor M.
The blower case 1 is formed by upper and lower pieces P1 and P2 joined at a Parting line PL at an intermediate location in the motor axial direction. The lower piece P2 and the motor holding housing 2 holding the motor M are formed integrally. The cooling air passage 4 is comprised of a groove formed integrally in the lower piece P2 and covered by a cap from the fan F side. By configuring it in this way, the cooling air passage 4 from the inlet of the cooling air to the motor M can be formed by the shortest distance and the motor M can be efficiently cooled.
However, this blower system is an integral structure of the lower piece P2 of the blower vase 1 and the motor holding housing 2 joined together, so when the motor M has to be replaced, it becomes necessary to separate the upper piece P1 and lower piece P2 of the blower case 1 to remove the motor M. Usually, the blower case 1 is connected to the air-conditioning case having the cooler and heater, so when disassembling the blower case 1, it becomes necessary to disassemble the air-conditioning case and the maintenance efficiency becomes extremely poor.
If making the motor holding housing 2 and lower piece P2 separate, the above problem can be solved, but Japanese Patent Publication (A) no. 2002-347428 provides a cooling air passage 4 between the inner side of the blower case 1 and the motor M, so the lower piece P2 of the blower case 1 and the motor holding housing 2 must be made integral in structure.